Fury at 'expensive and unnecessary' travel testing demands as ministers urge Brits to take expensive PCR Covid tests when returning from Spain even though they are NOT mandatory 

• Ministers are advising travellers coming back from Spain to take a PCR test
• The Government said PCR tests are more 'helpful' than cheaper lateral flow
• That's because they can be used to identify the emergence of Covid variants 
• Aviation chiefs believe PCR are 'expensive and unnecessary', want them axed

Aviation bosses have demanded the Government take action on the cost of travel testing amid fears many families are being priced out of a trip abroad. 

The Government has made a raft of changes to its traffic light scheme, extending the green list, reopening quarantine-free holidays to France and keeping trips to Spain on the table after it was spared being moved to the 'red list'. 

Testing remains a key component of the system, with pre-departure tests required for travel from red, amber and green nations. 

Ministers have now stressed that all travellers returning from Spain should take a PCR test because they are more accurate than cheaper lateral flow checks and can help officials keep track of coronavirus variants. 

However, travel chiefs believe the PCR tests - which can cost up to £175 per person - are 'expensive and unnecessary'.   

They want the PCR tests to only be required for travel from the most high-risk nations and for lateral flow tests to be made acceptable in all other circumstances.  

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Travel Association, told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme: 'I think a simpler system is definitely what is required to avoid confusion in the case of consumers, and to provide some form of certainty for people who are wanting to travel, and in some cases absolutely need to travel.

'This expensive and unnecessary testing I think needs to be challenged and I think the Government should demonstrate why they require it.'

He added: 'I think there is a valid reason and a concern, and I would accept that maybe for some of these high-risk countries that have been identified you can make the argument that some form of testing should be done, but I don't think you can justify requiring 2.2 million people to undertake PCR tests when only 8,000 of those are subsequently sequenced.'

John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive of Heathrow Airport, said easing the travel rules was welcome but added that 'travel will remain unaffordable for many hardworking Brits until the Government replaces expensive PCR tests with the cheaper lateral flow tests that are used for NHS workers'.  

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps defended the Government telling travellers coming back from Spain to take PCR tests.

He said: 'Just to clarify, there is no change in terms of what is required. We have always had quite high specifications… specificity is what it is called for the tests you have to do before you come to the UK and that specification has not changed.

'In the case of Spain where we have an interest in a variant called the B1621 variant the reality is that nine out of 10 people already take a PCR test so there is actually no particular change.' 

Mr Shapps said the PCR tests were more 'helpful' than lateral flow because they can be used to keep track of variants. 

Asked why people would bother to get a PCR test instead of a lateral flow if it is not compulsory, he said: 'They have already actually been required to get a test of this particular, a high sensitivity, a specificity, that hasn't changed. 

'If you have the choice, if you are presented with both, the PCR ones are particularly useful. 

'As I say, in Spain it so happens that actually the PCR test is the go to test. It is actually quite unusual to find a lateral flow test which actually meets the requirements.

'It so happens the UK lateral flow tests are of high specification but in most places, including Spain, people are already getting the appropriate type of test. 

'We are just reminding people that helps our scientists to sequence the genome which is the thing which enables us to know whether there are variants.'